Tuesday, February 15, 2011

What's that you say? The models-for-hire at the local auto show weren't interested in drinks after their shift? The football team didn't let you lunch in their area even though you placed 2nd in the state chess tournament two years in a row? Angelina Jolie stole away your Sexiest-Man-Alive husband?

Alas, while life and love can sometimes seem cruel, is it really that unfair? Maybe you're not the victim of some vindictive curse, but rather just a normal guy/gal unable to break the unwritten sociological laws imposed on mankind - the laws that say that the 9's and 10's hang out with other 9's and 10's, the 7-ishes bond with other 7-ishes, and so forth. While we all strive to be among the lucky few who find the loopholes (see: Who's Least Worthy?), for most of us our net is cast within a 1 point range on either side of our ourselves.

With that, I welcome you to 'Be My Broheim', SoSG's social experiment/off-season-competition, where participants try to break the above norms and hitch their wagon to a star as far above their league as possible.

Broheim - [broh-hym], noun - A kinsman, a fellow man or colleague; brethren; referring to a friend or a brother as such.

See also: Bro, Bromigo, Brosef, Bra

The object of the game is to get the most desirable Broheim you can while avoiding the riff-raff beneath you - all without being left out in the cold altogether. Here's how it works:

The game consists of 5 rounds. Two or three rounds will be played per week (I'm giving myself a day of admin between rounds), with the first round tomorrow. Each round begins at 9am PT and ends at 2pm PT.

Each participant will be randomly assigned a 'desirability rating' from 1-10. '10' is most desirable, '1' is least desirable. There are no restrictions or rating allocation requirements regarding the assignments. For example, if the luck of the draw assigns everybody a '6' (nearly impossible mathematically, but theoretically possible), then everybody's a '6'. There doesn't need to be a certain number of 1's or 2's, etc. Since there are more than 10 participants, there will certainly be some participants with the same number assiged.

Before each round (either the previous day or the early morning of), each participant will receive an email revealing everybody's rating except his/her own. Please do not communicate through comments, email, or any other medium anyone's rating, or even hint that Participant X has a high or low number. The integrity of the game relies on everyone being unaware of their own number!

At 9am, when the round begins, a post will appear titled "Be My Broheim: Round X".

The object is to get the highest rated person possible to "be your Broheim," by simply making Broheim requests of your fellow participants, as follows:

Between the hours of 9am and 2pm, in the comments you may ask another participant to be your Broheim. For example, if Mr C wants to ask Neeebs to be his Broheim, he would make the request as follows: "BROHEIM REQUEST: Neeebs, will you be my Broheim?" (please try to follow this syntax as it makes administration easier, plus I find it mildly amusing).

Neeebs can reply either "BROHEIM REPLY: Mr C, I accept" or "BROHEIM REPLY: Mr C, I decline", or he may choose to not reply at all.

When making requests or replying, please be sure to be clear about to whom you are speaking, as it can otherwise get really confusing.

You can make no more than four* Broheim requests per round. You can make them anytime you want (i.e., you can have all four of your offers out there concurrently if you so desire), but the first to accept is your Broheim for that round. You only get one Broheim per round, and you can't change your mind.

If you use up all four of your Broheim requests without receiving an acceptance, you're relegated to sitting on the sidelines and hoping someone asks you.

On the flipside, there's no limit to the number of Broheim requests you can receive. If you receive multiple, you can decide amongst them before replying to any. But remember - if one of your requestors locks in a Broheim agreement with someone else before you reply, then his/her offer to you is off the table. And you don't want to let 2pm pass without having a Broheim, as you will see below...

Again, DO NOT COMMENT OR HINT AT ANYONE'S RATING, OR ASK ABOUT YOUR OWN! And please no communicating off-line (at least regrading this game). Other than this restriction, feel free to make any other comments you want.

If by 2pm you don't either accept a Broheim offer made of you, or have one of your own offers accepted, you are Broheimless that round (*sighs and shakes head disapprovingly*).

After the round is over, scores will be tallied. There are two components to each round's score, as follows:

Component 1 is simply the rating of the person who is your Broheim, from 1-10. If you are left Broheimless, you get a zero.

Component 2 is the difference between your score and your Broheim's score, either positive (if you hitched upward), or negative (if you hitched downward). For example, if you're a '6' yet you snagged an '8' as your Broheim, you get +2, and your Broheim is penalized with a -2 for settling. If you are left Broheimless, your Component 2 score will be as if your Broheim were a zero (if you are a '4', you will be penalized -4).

Your final score for the round is the sum of Component 1 and Component 2.

At the end of each round, everyone will be re-assigned a new desirability rating, again in a random fashion, and all previous Broheim pairings are nullified. The process begins anew for the next round. At the end of all 5 rounds, the person with the highest total score wins.